20 June 2008 11:04
It's a record we shouldn't be proud of: Australia has overtaken the US as the world's most obese nation.
The report, Australia's Future Fat Bomb, finds 26% of adult Australians (that's almost 4 million people) are now obese. That's an increase of 1 million since the last count in 1999. By comparison, America has a 25% obesity rate.
"That, unfortunately, makes us the heavyweight champions, a title we don't really want," said report author Professor Simon Stewart, who is also head of preventive cardiology at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne.
"I would regard this as the biggest threat to our future health," he said.
"As we send our athletes off to the Olympics, let's reflect on the fact that we would win the gold medal now in the world fat Olympics if there was such a thing.
"The health care system is going to be overwhelmed by weight-related hospitalisations from knee replacements through to heart attacks and strokes."
Other statistics from the report:
• 9 million adults have a body mass index over 25, making them overweight or obese, an increase from 7 million.
• There will be an extra 700,000 heart-related hospital admissions in the next 20 years due to obesity, and almost 125,000 people will die as a result.
Source: smh.com.au
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